Conventionally, surgical operations have been performed for removing, for example, a diseased part when a cancer is contracted on the large intestine of a human being. The intestine is cut into two in such surgical operation, so that an intestinal anastomotic surgery is necessary to anastomose the anus-side piece of the intestine connected to the anus and the stomach-side piece of the intestine connected to the stomach. When performing the intestinal anastomotic surgery, an anastomotic device that is disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, is used.
The anastomotic device disclosed in Patent Document 1 uses a large number of metallic staplers to anastomose the anus-side piece and the stomach-side piece of the intestine, and the device comprises a cylindrical device main body and an umbrella-shaped head that is detachably attached to the device main body. The device main body is inserted to the anus-side piece of the intestine from the anus. A large number of slits from which the staplers are struck out are formed in the outer circumference of the end face in the inserting direction of the device main body, and a ring-shaped cutter is provided on the inner side of each slit. Further, a recessed portion for housing intestine cutout pieces is formed on the inner side than the cutter in the end face of the device main body. Furthermore, at the center part of the end face of the above-described device main body, an engaging rod that projects towards the inserting direction of the device main body is provided in a state to be capable of being retracted into the device main body. Moreover, the above-described head comprises a projected portion to be engaged with the engaging rod of the device main body.
When performing the intestinal anastomotic surgery by using the anastomotic device described above, the device main body is inserted first from the engaging rod into the anus-side piece of the intestine. When the device main body is inserted to a prescribed position, the open end of the anus-side piece of the intestine is tied to the engaging rod with a suture as if to cover the device main body while maintained in the prescribed position. In the meantime, the open end of the intestine is closed by, for example, suturing after inserting the head into the stomach-side piece of, the intestine, while driving the projected portion of the head towards the outside by piercing through the side wall of the stomach-side piece of the intestine.
Then, when the engaging rod is retracted inside the device main body after engaging the projected portion of the head with the engaging rod of the device main body, the open end of the anus-side piece of the intestine and the side wall of the stomach-side piece of the intestine come into close contact with each other. The staplers struck out from the device main body at this time are pressed and bent by the head, after piercing through the open end of the anus-side piece of the intestine and the side wall of the stomach-side piece of the intestine. With this, the anus-side piece and the stomach-side piece of the intestine, are anastomosed and, at the same time, part of the intestine on the inner side than the anastomosed part is removed by the cutter of the device main body and placed in the recessed portion used for housing intestine pieces. Upon this, the anus-side piece and the stomach-side piece of the intestine are connected. Thus, use of the anastomotic device eliminates the need for the surgeon to perform a suturing treatment by using a needle and a suture when anastomosing the intestines. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time of surgery and to perform the anastomotic surgery easily even in a part within the pelvis cavity where it is difficult to reach by hands.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 11-4832 (p 2, p 3, FIG. 5)